I wonder what would happen if I were to take a photo and blog EVERY. SINGLE. THING. I put in my big fat gob over the next week – until I leave for New Zealand? That’s actually only about 5 days. Calories don’t count in NZ cos I’ll be trying to get myself through a marathon of classes.

I’m 25 (I nearly wrote 24 by mistake, but I turn 26 in just over a month) years old and live in Sydney. I bought my cute little apartment in April last year, but my second home is the group fitness studio, and has been since the age of 15 or 16.

Day job wise, I work for a retail franchisor in marketing. I really enjoy it! In the evenings and on weekends I teach group fitness – only body balance these days! I would love to teach sh’bam, just hasn’t taken off in Sydney (good things still to come I hope) but am also trained in body attack, body jam, and body step (my first love – again, sadly so popular in Sydney)

I get a little down on Sydney sometimes – I moved here from Perth and although it was the best thing I could have done career wise, I miss Perth. I miss AFL, cold nights in winter, DRY hot summers, a lack of rain and the laid-back culture. I don’t miss archaic retail trading hours and expensive coffee and eating out.

I’m doing the 12WBT because I need to learn to cook and eat properly, and I just need a little kick in the pants to do that. I’d also like to get stronger, but truth be told, there are a lot of health issues (including lupus, jra and various autoimmune disorders_ that seem to have cropped up on my mum’s side of the family. Unfortunately my younger sister has really struggled with her health in the last few years, but she is on the mend. None of the illnesses are obesity related, nor are any of the family obese or overweight, but I want to be in the best possible shape I can should anything happen – and also know never to take my health for granted.

My biggest challenge is my lifestyle. I’m a disorganised, scatterbrained being who leads a life of chaos and disorder. No kidding… the state of my apartment right now is not pretty. I need to respect myself more, and take care of myself.

Quick update from Perth airport – I’m about to leave to head back to Sydney.

Last week was a bit of a shocker. The first half of the week I did really well and was really good at eating clean. I was so proud of myself that on Tuesday I managed to get up and go for a run before work. I came home and showered, ate a great brekkie. Then stupid me didn’t put my keys back on my key ring after I came home from the run and locked myself out as I was leaving for work. Not cool.

Friday, I arrived home from work and was getting ready to leave for the airport when I discovered I had no power. Quick call to my electricity provider… haven’t had any issues with payments to my account, and long story short, it turns out they made a BIG mess up. They said they’d come reconnect back Friday night, but needed to be there. With half an hour until I had to leave before my flight (and I needed to pack as well) I didn’t have the time to organise someone to come round and to get them my keys… so everything in my freezer and fridge will be kaput. There goes all my careful planning for this week, which I did as I arrive back In Sydney around 11pm. The other PITA is that they can either come reconnect it between 8am – 12, or 12 – 4. This does not work for me – I work 50 minutes from work, and don’t have any family or friends who are around during the day in Sydney. Not happy about having to ask my boss if I can work from home tomorrow afternoon.

The reason I was back in Perth was for my friend Lauren’s engagement part – I’ve known Lauren since I was in primary school, and we also went to high school together. It was a great night and I’m really glad I made the trip over. It was great catching up with the girls, and its the first time I’ve been to something with all of them and not been having panic attacks in the car. I’m so proud of everything I’ve achieved and I can’t wait to go to our 10 year reunion next year.

It’s been an absolute stinker here and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost a couple of kilos from sweat – one can only hope, huh?

This morning I set my alarm for one hour earlier than what I normally get up at (AND I had a good nights sleep) and got up to go for a run.

The bad?

I came home feeling utterly fantastic, had a shower, made a great brekky and left to get in the lift. It was at this moment that I realised I didn’t have my keys! I’d taken my house keys off my key ring before I went for my run – my keyring didn’t fit in the pocket of my tights. When I left, I had my keyring but forgot to put the keys back in.

Had to call a locksmith and ended up being late to work. My boss was OK – he just said it’s one of those things.

The ugly –

I hope this won’t happen but I’m scared I’ll get put off running on the mornings.

I will succeed this time. It feels different, and my mindset is entirely different. Instead of thinking that I’m just depriving myself to look good, there’s more to it. I want to succeed at this because my continual health is at risk. I want to succeed so that I can be a better physical role model for my classes.

And I know I can succeed because I achieved my ‘if I can do this, I can do anything’ goal.

As a group fitness instructor, ‘I know’ I should be having something to eat immediately after class, then coming home for dinner in the evenings. Not coming home, collapsing on the couch with good intentions and then not doing anything, which is exactly what I HAVE been doing.

I finally decided to do something about it when I arrived back in Sydney.

Last night, I realised that it’s not good enough to say ‘I know’ – you need to take some action too!